PET ORDINANCE: City Considers Limit

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Pet owners in Pleasant Hill could soon have some new rules to follow and not everyone is happy about it.

How many pets are considered too many? On Tuesday, the council came up with that number.

Pleasant Hill resident, Tyler Seher says “I don’t think there should be a limit. It just depends on the animals you have and how they act.”

Right now, Pleasant Hill doesn't have a pet restriction but city council is looking to limit households to a maximum of four pets.

“Multi-pet families are becoming more common then I think they ever were before,” comments ARL Executive Director Tom Colvin.

The city thinks too many cats or dogs are a recipe for noise and yard maintenance concerns. Animal shelters like the Animal Rescue League of Iowa think numbers have nothing to do it.

“I mean we can have trouble with people that have one dog or cat and not take care of it and allow it to bark and be obnoxious,” says Colvin.

Pleasant Hill City manager, Donald Sandor, says the topic of pet restrictions has been tossed around for years.

“There are complaints that do get generated from neighbors that have too many pets.”

If the new pet ordnance were to pass, it would only be enforced on households that have received noise complaints.

Sandor says, “If somebody has pets but they're all inside and they're not causing any problems for the neighbors, we’re not going to go door to door and see how many pets they have.”

The city says it is just doing what's best for its residents.

“We’re not out to cause people problems, we know that people get attached to pets and there could be other ways to deal with the issue, keep the pet inside or other means but this is just one additional tool to deal with possible problems,” Sander adds.

In November, the city will hold two more meetings to decide whether the law will pass.

All other metro cities have a four pet maximum set in place, except for Waukee and Des Moines that have six.